


Looking like that, you'll open some wounds

by professorblnns



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, I'm With You - Vance Joy (Song)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Muggle, Everybody Lives, F/M, discontinued, except James and Lily though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:00:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23175823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/professorblnns/pseuds/professorblnns
Summary: Muggle au where Viktor and Hermione meet for the first time when he is an exchange student living in the house opposite hers with Sirius and Harry. Viktor moves back to Bulgaria, but then they meet again years later.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley (mentioned), Hermione Granger/Viktor Krum
Kudos: 6





	1. WE WOKE UP TO THE SOUND OF A STORM OUTSIDE

**Author's Note:**

> if you don't like a fifteen and a seventeen year old kissing, you shouldn't read this. That's all I'm gonna say.

It was Viktor's going-away party. The last time Viktor was to see Hermione and the last time Hermione was to see Krum.  
But it didn't snap inside of her before she looked into his eyes from across the room. They were brown hidden behind his big bent nose. If eyes are the windows to our souls, through his eyes she could finally see all his sweetness, all his loyalty and every single one of his impulses. If they hadn't been surrounded by people she would have raked her hand over his head, through the tiny hairs of his buzz cut one last time. But as it were, it was the last time any of them were to see him because he was flying home that night. So she simply let her feelings be what they were, feeling trapped by everybody who was coming to say goodbye to him.  
While Hermione was combating her emotions, Viktor was combating his urge to abduct her and be alone with her in these last few hours. But there he was, and Sirius had organized this whole going-away party just for him. Knowing Sirius, it hadn't been easy. Sirius wasn't the most organized host-father. Viktor wasn't the most organized seventeen-year-old host-son either though, so it was a good match. Viktor felt he couldn't have gotten a better home to stay in, in all of England. The stay with Sirius and his godson Harry had been all he could ever want. Sirius had adopted and raised his godson unexpectedly after Lily and James Potter's untimely death when Harry was not yet one year old, which made Viktor love them both for who they were all the more.  
During his exchange year in England, Viktor had met many new people. Sirius' lover Remus, the Weasley's and his best mates at school Fleur and Cedric. But the best person by far was Hermione Granger who at the going-away party looked at Viktor with the deepest heartache a fifteen-year-old girl could muster.  
Where Sirius' lawn was dried out, weathered down and with an unfixed doorbell to top it off, the Granger's lawn was tended-to, freshly cut and beautifully grown. He had seen her lawn every morning when he took out the bike to get to school, building up a fear of meeting Sirius' neighbours, even though Sirius had informed him many-a-time that the Granger's were absolutely wonderful, they do everything for me! When the day came, after a week or so, that Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting around Sirius' dining table doing homework, Viktor knew right away that she had to be Hermione Granger. It was in her poise, in the way she had pinched her upper lip, and her pulled back curly hair. She was so proper, but she was so enchanting with her beautiful brown eyes and her glowing complexion.  
"Hermione, have you done french Homework yet?" Ron asked.  
"Are you kidding me? It was due yesterday..," Hermione answered.  
"Hey Viktor." Harry said, having finally noticed Viktor who was stood silently in the doorway.  
"Er- hi." Viktor said, before he mentally berated himself for being so awkward. He closed the door behind him and took off his shoes.  
When he had looked down however, Hermione had looked up. She saw an older boy and noticed his short hair, his heavy brow and his still thin teenage body in a sweater too spacious for him. She bit her lip.  
When Viktor was at the going-away party he couldn't help but think back to that day, when the autumn weather hadn't yet quite settled in, when the following year was yet waiting to happen. It seemed so long ago, although he remembered it like it was yesterday. While Hermione was sat with Ginny, nursing her tea sadly and appearing deep in melancholia for a reason nobody knew but herself and Viktor, he stood among an older crowd talking to Cedric, Fleur and Bill. Both of them stole glances at each other without the other knowing.  
When the party ended, Hermione was one of the first to leave. Originally she had wanted to get him alone, so she could give him one last goodbye kiss, but she got scared and went home instead.  
Later though, when everybody had left and it was half an hour till Sirius had to drive Viktor to the airport, Viktor went up to the Granger's house and he didn't even have to ring their doorbell before Hermione opened up, having mustered up the courage to go speak to him.  
"Er- Hi Viktor," She said.  
"Hi," He answered his accent thick, "where ere you going at dis lete hour?"  
"I was going to meet you, actually," she blurted out.  
"Oh," he said.  
"Yep," she said  
"Well- I just wanehted to geeve you a proper gudbye. Er-" He said, hinting at the door behind her. She closed the door and they went to stand by her fence, further away from her parents.  
"I was thinking the same thing," she said, giving him a small smile.  
"Hermione," He said  
"Yes?"  
"Come visit mi in Bulgaria," he said, gripping the fence and leaning closer to her.  
"I can't, Viktor. I don't want to," she answered for the last time, looking at the ground.  
"Why not?" He asked with a smile on his face, as they'd had the conversation so many times it was funny to him.  
"It's too far... and I'm going with my family to France," she said, still not looking up.  
"Fuck France," he said.  
"I will if you keep asking me to," she said, finally looking up with a teasing grin on her face.  
"You'd forgo mi so fast?" He chuckled, but not because he found it funny.  
"Yea," she said, even though it wasn't true. Then she reached up and kissed him. It was different from the chaste kisses he had stolen in the daylight of Hermione's bedroom before, under the pretense he was helping her with maths homework. It was different from their first kiss, when Hermione had grabbed his face clumsily while Harry visited the bathroom. It was different from the long lazy kisses he had given her when he knew she wanted them just as much as he did. It was different because it was filled with longing and loneliness and greed.  
"Write mi? Please?" he said when it was done, which made her giggle.  
"Yes, Victor, of course I'll write you," she said. Then he leaned back in to kiss what he knew he would never kiss again.

The next morning Hermione was fast asleep in her bed and Viktor was far far away.


	2. I'VE BEEN ON FIRE, DREAMING OF YOU

It's years and years till Hermione and Viktor meet again. They kept in touch for a while, sending each other postcards and occasionally calling. But then life happened, and they seemed so far away from one another. Eventually they lost contact, moving countries and forgoing their bond. Until one day, they happened across each other, in a cafe in central London.   
Viktor worked in London and was visiting the cafe to get coffee for his co-workers. Hermione studied in London, getting by on a small student loan. She had planned to study, but was actually on the phone with Ron, who complained about her moving all the way to London, now he had to "third-wheel off of my little sister and my best friend;" Harry and Ginny had recently gotten engaged. She sat at a table close to the counter with a view of the door, still she didn't notice Viktor before he ordered 4 cappuccinos with his (now less distinct) Bulgarian accent. Viktor was now a lot more grown than when Hermione last saw him. He was wearing a white shirt and dress trousers, his work clothes, even on that warm day in may. He had filled out, no longer swimming in his clothes. His hair and beard were grown which made him look a lot more grown up compared to when she last saw him. All this made Hermione consider her own choice of clothing that day, which was a gray university t-shirt and bright red sweatpants, her hair up in a messy bun that kept shifting around on her head. She pulled out her bun and tried to tie it tighter to her neck, but her hair was so messy it didn't end up looking any better He still hadn't noticed her. She risked looking in her backpack for a tighter hair tie than the scrunchie she was currently using. Thereafter, she was able to tie her greasy unbrushed hair into a tight bun. She was still embarrassed by the mess around her on the cafe-table. He started to move out of the cafe without having noticed her.   
"Viktor!" She called. He turned around. I took a few seconds for Viktor to recognize her. Considering the years that had passed, it was reasonable.   
"Hermione?" He said, walking towards her carrying his four cappuccinos.   
"Yes, hi. Do you have time to sit down?" She asked. He did have time, so he sat down to talk. Their chit-chat ended with him leaving for work with four cold cappuccinos, but her number saved on his phone. 

It hadn't been easy for Hermione to move to London. Her love for her friends and her roots was immense. But she knew she could never live there happily all her life. Her curiosity, her need to see something that wasn't her hometown led her to move to London. She was happy she did so, even when it didn't go one day where she didn't miss her parents and Harry and Ron. Life had been so simple before. So predictable. In London, everything just went faster - she didn't know everyone who sat on the subway with her, the names of the baristas, nor who lived in the apartment next to her. She didn't know who she'd meet; anything could happen unexpectedly. 

A couple of days later Hermione and Viktor met for brunch. It had been awkward at first, for although Viktor was confident, Hermione was rather flustered. Then they got to talking and everything was smooth sailing from there.   
One evening Hermione came to visit Viktor's apartment for dinner. She came in carrying a bouquet of flowers. The apartment smelled of spices and good cooking. They did the usual routine of eating, drinking and talking before one or the other went home. They'd been meeting for a while now, to eat and drink and talk together. It didn't go further until that evening, when Hermione came carrying flowers. Maybe it was something in the damp summer air, or it was the romantic gesture of the flowers, or maybe it was just the fact that the two of them couldn't stay apart any longer. So when they had eaten, they had drank - they didn't talk long. Everything went well, as most things seemed to go those days.


End file.
